Saint Mazie Summary
Jami Attenberg

Everything you need to understand or teach Saint Mazie by Jami Attenberg.

  • Saint Mazie Summary & Study Guide

Saint Mazie Overview

Saint Mazie, an epistolary/historical novel, has its source in a present-day documentarian who acquires a 90-year-old diary that tells the life story of Mazie Phillips-Gordon—Jazz Age party girl, ticket-taker, and champion to the homeless and destitute of New York City's Lower East Side. Mazie's optimism and verve are haunted by childhood abuse, and when the Great Depression comes she welcomes anguished friends and strangers—many homeless—into the Venice Theater's comfort. Mazie enjoys boozing and romantic flings, yet becomes a "saint" to suffering locals, chronicling in her secret diary hope, horror, and adventure.